Eurovision winning songwriter Shay Healy dies after long illness
over 4 years in The Irish Times
Songwriter and broadcaster Shay Healy has died at the 78.
Mr Healy had been will with Parkinson’s Disease since 2004 and often spoke publicly about living with the illness.
He is best known for having written What’s Another Year, Ireland’s Eurovision entry in 1980, sung by Johnny Logan, which won the competition.
He was also an accomplished broadcaster. His programme, Nighthawks, was a very popular show in the early 1990s.
His interview with the former minister for justice Sean Doherty in 1992 about the phone-tapping scandal of 1982 hastened the end of term for the then-taoiseach Charles Haughey.
In 1998, Mr Healy made two half-hour documentaries for the RTÉ One television series, Against The Odds. The series focused on individuals who had overcome adversity in their lives.
Mr Healy’s two films featured an actor, Chris Burke, who was born with dwarfism, and the singer, Ronan Tynan, whose legs were amputated when he was 20.
Mr Healy later founded his own production company. In 2018, he spoke about his illness on the Claire Byrne Live programme.
His wife Dymphna pre-deceased him in 2017. He is survived by his two sons Oisin and Fionain.
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